A wide variety of food products and other items are packaged in cup-like containers to which typically circular lids are applid. Ordinarily, packaging equipment for such products includes devices for destacking individual ones of the containers from stacks thereof, product-filling devices for placing the desired contents in the containers, and a lid applying apparatus for applying lids to the containers.
Like the containers, the container lids are typically provided in stacks, with destacking of individual lids required for subsequent application to respective containers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,487,622, to Mueller, illustrates a capping apparatus which employs a rotatably movable vacuum cup for removing the lowermost lid from a stack of lids, and inverting and applying the lid to a container on an associated conveyor. Appropriate cam drives are provided for effecting the necessary reciprocating rotation of the vacuum cup for inversion of each container lid as it is moved from the stack to its respective container.
While the apparatus of the above patent has proven commercially successful, and suitable for reliable, high-speed packaging, packaging efficiency and attendant cost-reduction is promoted through the use of packaging machinery which is straightforward in design and operation, suited for high-speed packaging, and which is configured for convenient adjustability to permit its use with differently sized containers and different packaging equipment. In keeping with these goals, the present invention comprises an apparatus for applying container lids which is readily adaptable for high-speed use with a variety of existing packaging equipment, is desirably straightforward in operation, and is readily adjustable for use with differently sized containers.